A scandal of unprecedented magnitude

We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Tens of billions of pesos in ghost and substandard flood control projects have been unearthed not by any unsuspecting earthling but by the Almighty Himself. Is it not uncanny that we are experiencing unusual and incessant rains where most of the scandalous flood control infrastructure were supposed to have been constructed?

The grand larceny was bound to explode. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made a big show of making the 5,500 flood control projects the centerpiece of his 2024 State of the Nation Address. Rains that caused destructive floods, however, indicated something was gravely wrong with the projects. His Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan was playing possum and never raised a furor over the daylight thievery then taking place right under his nose. Therefore, the Heavens intervened.

Thus, a cynical Marcos did his own investigation. What he discovered made him angry. A DZRH news dispatch stated: “President Marcos saw ghost flood control projects.”

From the disclosures of Senator Rodante Marcoleta, Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman, and the exposé of Senator Ping Lacson, the unsuspecting public was hit with a thunderbolt — the existence of an exclusive club of congressmen-contractors and builder-contractors who are close to the seats of power: the House of Representatives and Malacañang.

While President Marcos made an inchoate display of displeasure and anger, the air was rife with rumors and brave posts on social media about some characters involved in the multi-billion-peso flood control projects who got their share of the bacon.

The government bureaucracy is totally corrupted. The vegetative cancer of graft and corruption has gnawed at and weakened its structure, values, and whatever was left of its dignity.

President Marcos does not even have the gumption to axe Public Works Secretary Bonoan and none of the top guns in the Regional Districts of Department of Public Works and Highways have been summoned to answer or report on the pervasive cases of ghost and substandard flood control projects.

Bonoan did not even hesitate to confess that he knew of the existence of ghost projects. He did so with such an aura of confidence like no one can jettison him even as the department he heads now has the distinction of being the most corrupt in the entire government.

That confidence is contagious. In Davao City, a short flyover project is barely halfway to completion after nearly four years in the making. When summoned by the City Council to explain the unconscionable delay, the DPWH sent a minor official.

But funnily enough, in Davao de Oro newly elected Representative Jhong Ceniza surprised everyone when he came out in the media to assert that R. A. Pahati Construction that was mentioned by Senator Marcoleta was not involved in any shenanigans. Funny because no one had asked, no one cared about the company but Ceniza’s statement has stirred a hornets’ nest.